senorkevin wrote:Cured and now smoked. I tried a piece and it is very salty or not sure if it the liquid smoke.Would I be able to lower the salt level or I do I have to follow the recipe to the T?

Which recipe?

3 days? The tutorial says:

Now place the meat into the remaining brine and put it into the fridge to finish curing. For pieces up to 2 or 3 kilograms 5 - 7 days is fine. Leave larger pieces for around 10 days. Turn the meat over in the brine cure occasionally.

In any case, If it's salty, you've done it wrong, the final salt level in this ham is less than 1.5% with a sugar level of 1%. That's a lot less salt than in any of the 8 hams that I've just looked at from a large UK supermarket (Sainsbury's).

Nothing wrong with tying them so they maintain a uniform shape. As I mentioned above Len Poli's recipe is wrong for a brine cure as far as cure goes....Let us know what calculator your using. If it calls for injecting then as long as you get the proper amount in the meat you're good and any extra brine can be placed in a bag with the meat to help add to the process.

I tried the len poli and it wasn't bad, but it was salty.I used the beginners injection calc and worked a treat like always. Could I add liquid smoke to the beginners calc?Also I started to place the loins in a tub as I have tried many bags but they always seam to leak How do I use the calc with 2 loins? Just combine the weight of the loins and add to calc?

An Englishman living in México.There'e not such thing as a stupid question, just a stupid answer!